Bruce's Lawyer Slams Allegations

June 26, 1985|By Louis Trager of The Sentinel Staff

A lawyer for Bruce Williams testified Tuesday that criminal allegations against Bruce's relatives were passed on to their lawyers in an attempt to head off ''the worst bloodletting in the history of Orlando.''

Lawyer Leon Handley denounced as ''scurrilous'' charges that Bruce used him to extort the other members of the Champ Williams family of airport restaurateurs during negotiations in late 1983 and early 1984. On the contrary, Handley said, he was trying to help the entire family and city.

''Orlando has been a clean community,'' he said. '' . . . I thought this would be awful . . . and it has been awful.''

Bruce has accused his relatives of wronging him and his wife, Jenny, and of skimming money from the restaurant business and using some proceeds for bribes and illegal campaign contributions.

His relatives have denied the allegations and countersued. They accuse Bruce of using the accusations to make them pay an inflated price to buy out his interest in the business and to settle his suit.

Handley answered questions for more than five hours in a pretrial session in Orange County circuit court lawsuits between Bruce and his relatives. Handley, 57, described himself as having been a friend of the entire Williams family for many years.

But he showed how strongly he has taken sides in the fight. The lawyer contrasted Bruce -- ''the one good guy in the outfit,'' who was ''totally aboveboard and honest'' -- with his relatives -- ''the bad guys,'' who were ''totally devious and under the table.''

Handley also lashed out at the relatives' lawyers, David King and Charles Egerton, over the extortion charge.

''It's a scurrilous thing that he has done and a scurrilous thing you have done because you know in your heart I have never made extortionate threats,'' Handley told King, who was questioning him. ''. . . You have insulted me and you have wounded me to the quick.''

''I never discussed anything about extortion with Bruce Williams,'' Handley said. ''I never discussed anything that could be construed as extortion.''

But when King specifically asked about their discussions, Handley's new co-counsel, former federal prosecutor Bernard Dempsey, objected to the questions as violating attorney-client confidentiality. King will have to go back to Orange Circuit Judge Lon Cornelius, who issued an order requiring Handley to answer the extortion allegations, if he wants to force Handley to answer.

Handley said that shortly after he entered the negotiations in October 1983 it became clear that the other family members were not seriously interested in a settlement. They believed that Bruce would go to the authorities anyway, he said.

Handley quoted Champ as saying of Bruce, his son, ''I'll spend a million dollars before I give him one dime.''

Handley said he kept trying until the next January because he is an incurable optimist.

He said that after wrestling with his conscience, Bruce decided that he had to own up to the Internal Revenue Service, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, the city of Orlando, and relatives he believed had been cheated out of their share of the estate of the mother of Champ's wife, Betty.

Handley said he had several reasons for passing the allegations to Egerton, together with Bruce's plans and actions in telling authorities and others:

-- To explain why the other family members were, in Bruce's view, trying to destroy him or his credibility.

-- To explain why Bruce did not trust his relatives and thought he needed special protections in any settlement.

-- To show how important it was that the family be healed and the allegations not be made public. Handley said they inevitably would be revealed if the court fight, begun by Bruce in September 1983, continued.

''My philosophy is to lay it out on the table, to deal from the top of the deck,'' Handley said.

''I have never communicated threat one . . . There was never a threat to him that if you don't settle this case, Bruce will send them to jail or bring criminal charges.''

Handley said the other side ''improperly, incorrectly, inaccurately'' interpreted his statements as threats.

He said ''the money was way down the line'' among Bruce's priorities in the negotiations. ''What was important was that if possible we would like to negotiate to compromise this horrible dispute.''

Handley denied Egerton's previous testimony that he suggested a settlement would head off Bruce's initiation of a federal investigation. ''I never, ever told Charlie there was any guarantee. Ever.''

He said Bruce never would accept demands from his relatives that he avoid involvement in any investigation of the family or lose some of the proceeds of a settlement. Handley called the demands ''mum's-the-word provisions'' and said they ''smacked of an unlawful attempt to obstruct justice.''

When Bruce was concluding negotiations for immunity from federal prosecution, Handley acknowledged, he told Egerton in telephone messages that the ''doomsday button'' was going to pushed and ''the world is going to blow up.''

By those expressions, Handley said, he simply meant to convey that once the immunity deal went through, there would be no way to keep the fight private.

It would be ''the worst bloodletting in the history of Orlando, the worst scandal to my knowledge,'' he said. ''And it has been.''